The forthcoming Presidential election is not going to be like the ones before, because the stakes are high and the wrong choice will condemn this country to long-term political instability, economic misery, corruption and communal disharmony. Voting in this election therefore is going to be an epochal exercise where voters would be asked to decide whether the country’s current system of governance and its overarching ideology should continue as it had been for the last seven decades and more, or, break away from it completely and adopt a radically alternative model which would ensure clean governance, accountable economic management and true democracy.
Such radical transformation would mark Sri Lanka’s Glorious Revolution. It has to be done through the ballot box. In essence, this election would mark the nation’s second struggle for independence, the first in 1948 to free from foreign rule and the second in 2024 to free from local misrule. In this struggle it would be futile and dangerous for Muslims to indulge in their traditional game of business politics, or, what is more stylishly called “politics of pragmatism”. Also, boycotting this election as certain Tamil groups advocate is an act of sabotage.
Business politics
Eating biryani and voting UNP aptly described Muslim politics in the past. That was a time when they, quite wisely, did not form their own Muslim political parties but joined any other which promised profit. Thus, individual Muslim leaders independently swung from side to side before and after every election to profit personally as well as communally. Misruling governments accommodated these swingers for different reasons, but were prepared to compensate handsomely to these fence hoppers. When a separate Muslim party emerged in late 1980s and split into two thereafter the same business politics continued but under party labels. What was once practiced as business politics for mundane purposes now assumed a sacred veneer and transformed into a battle for Islamic identity and Muslim rights.
Between the Muslim voters of past and present there is a qualitative difference, which should have a quantitative impact at the ballot box. Although this change had occurred quite early in other communities it was delayed among Muslims because of their late entry to the field of secular education.
But so far, no Muslim party leader had ever catalogued and published a list of those mysterious rights. This criticism however, does not deny or belittle certain remarkable achievements the community had made because of selfless and dedicated services of one or two Muslim leaders in the past. Compared to those achievements the record of the current lot is almost zero. The time has now arrived for this farcical drama to end. The forthcoming election provides the best opportunity for Muslim voters to do it.
The first thing which Muslims should understand is that there are no Muslim rights as such to fight for, just as there are no Sinhalese rights or Tamil rights. A true democratic governance bestows rights and prescribes duties to every citizen indiscriminately and when those rights are infringed upon or denied to any citizen, the victim has the democratic right enshrined in the constitution to seek justice from government. Thus, the rights and duties of an Appuhamy are no different from those of Arumugam, Antony or Abdulla. If they happen to be unequal then the system of governance is not truly democratic and that is the tragedy in Sri Lanka today. Therefore, what Muslims and for that matter all citizens should fight for is to change that system. To their credit, the Aragalaya youth who were predominantly Sinhalese had already fired the first salvo in this regard two years ago. System change is therefore the crowning issue around which the forthcoming election in September is destined to be fought. Will the Muslims rally behind the candidate promising to do away with the old system?
A new generation of voters are rallying behind AKD, island wide. Muslims should not isolate themselves and stand aloof from this memorable shift.
Qualitative change
Between the Muslim voters of past and present there is a qualitative difference, which should have a quantitative impact at the ballot box. Although this change had occurred quite early in other communities it was delayed among Muslims because of their late entry to the field of secular education. Thanks to the services of leaders like Razik Fareed, Azeez and Badiuddin Mahmud, there is now a noticeable class of intelligentsia and professionals within this community which is spearheading an internal revolt against the traditional dominance in public affairs by religious clerics, wealthy businessmen and absentee landlords.
What is even more significant in this transformation is the educational awakening among Muslim women. There is a growing secularly educated and professional class among them consisting of university academics, school teachers, doctors, engineers, researchers, writers and poets who are economically independent and no more prepared to be controlled by outdated religious rulings and cultural traditions. They are a discerning lot and their organised resistance against the male oriented reforms to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act for example illustrates their liberated spirit. They may not be actively involved in national politics yet, but they are silently making an entry into it.
In the past, Muslim women were generally discouraged by their male elders from visiting polling booths for voting. For instance, this columnist is aware of a Muslim parliamentarian from Eastern Province whose wife never stepped into a polling booth and voted even when her own husband contested. That husband was prepared to accept defeat if he were to lose the contest by his wife’s solitary vote. To that extent Muslim women remained aloof from political participation. That has changed now. Muslim women have organised themselves as a separate entity and are ready to make their mark in the forthcoming race for the Presidency. Already one could witness the presence of head covered Muslim women in election rallies. This qualitative change among the new generation of Muslim voters must make a difference in the community’s voting behaviour this time.
Hence, the need for them to understand the real issue facing this nation. The term system change is a loaded concept which basically involves a radical shift in the mode of governance in this country, and the need for that shift is now dominating the yearnings of a new generation of youth. This is why the 2022 Aragalaya was a landmark event in the political history of this country. Perhaps, as a reflection of this need, a team of respectable intellectuals and constitutional experts from the Sinhalese and Tamil communities recently published a document in this journal on the urgency and relevance of constitutional changes that could bring about that shift (Colombo Telegraph, 28 July 2024). What was missing in that piece was an emphasis on basing that constitution on principles of secular democracy. It must have been an inadvertent omission on their part. But without secular democracy, governance in multiethnic and multicultural Sri Lanka will always be problematic. Religion in particular should be privatised, and privatisation of religion does not mean its devaluation or relegation to become an irrelevance. Singapore is an outstanding model to follow in this respect.
When Trotskyite Colvin R. de Silva was drafting the 1972 constitution, he was prevailed upon by his Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike to provide “foremost place for Buddhism” in that document in order to satisfy the aspirations of political Buddhism. Colvin once complained that the Prime Minister was almost imposing the 1815 Kandyan Convention upon the new constitution. The insertion of that provision however, finally turned parliamentary democracy into a virtual Buddhist theocracy overseen by the Mahanayakas.
The erosion of good governance with its attendant evils therefore has its root in political Buddhism, which grew and bloomed during Gotabaya’s Presidency. The time has now arrived for that tree to be cut down and happily the call for it has sprung from the Sinhalese Buddhist community itself with Aragalaya demand for system change. The task facing Muslim voters therefore is to rally behind thus call and elect a leader who would accomplish that change.
RW in particular is using his presidential status to buy the Muslim leaders in order to buy Muslim voters. This tactic will misfire this time because of the qualitative change noted earlier.
NPP and Muslims
Among those on the run for presidency three are reported to be in the front: sitting president Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW), leader of the opposition Sajith Premadasa (SP) and the leader of NPP, Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD). Among the three, only the third has made a firm commitment from day one of his campaign to “change the political culture through social revolution”, which in short translates into system change. According to reliable opinion polls AKD is commanding a winnable margin over his opponents within the majority community, but he wants his victory to be a joint contribution from all communities. His leading rivals are therefore desperately trying to woo the minorities, and with that objective in mind RW in particular is using his presidential status to buy the Muslim leaders in order to buy Muslim voters. This tactic will misfire this time because of the qualitative change noted earlier.
From the time RW became the accidental president he wanted the Muslims to go back to their forgotten tradition of eating biryani and voting UNP. But he lost his UNP through ineffective captaincy and clung on to the Rajapaksa clan with its 145 parliamentarians to remain as president. However, from day one of his regime he systematically made his moves to draw back the Muslim community under his wing. One could produce a catalogue of favours and positions RW had extended to Muslim leaders and their favourites.
He has been in politics for a long time to understand the business mentality of these parvenus, and he knows that many of them would swing their allegiance to any side at the right price. That allegiance was assumed to be enough to draw Muslim votes in the past, because those leaders with support from religious clerics ruled over their respective constituencies like fiefdoms. This will not work anymore, because of the new awakening. AKD’s call for a new political culture and NPP’s commitment for a clean and accountable government are the primary ingredients of the recipe for a new system. A new generation of voters are rallying behind AKD, island wide. Muslims should not isolate themselves and stand aloof from this memorable shift.
(The writer is attached to Business School, Murdoch University, W. Australia.)
From Daily FT.